SDA Bocconi Business School (Milan, Italy) announces the forthcoming onlinepublication of the first issue of "The transdisciplinary journal ofemergence" (www.sdabocconi.it). TJE is an English-language on-line journalthat will be published semi-annually starting from September 2003. We areseeking contributions for the second (Spring 2004) issue, to be sent byDecember 1st, 2003.

TJE is committed to fostering a critical dialogue across the social sciencesand humanities and welcomes thinkers challenging existingmodels of cultural/political/economical production. We are interested inadventurous takes on popular or classical subjects. We strive to support abroad range of participants and perspectives.Of specific interest are perspectives and methodologies that cut across, orovercome altogether, disciplinary separations within the fields of socialsciences and humanities

Although TJE is published by a Business School, we do not intend to assign aparticular emphasis to disciplinary (or trans-disciplinary, for that matter)discussions of management, economics, marketing, finance, and the like.Indeed, we believe the above-mentioned disciplines have increasinglyprogressed over time on a path that is eventually going to bring themoutside the domain of the social sciences. If the social sciences are toconstitute a distinct knowledge endeavor that should not be, we believe,solely because their object is human beings. Instead, the reason for theexistence of the social sciences as a separate field of inquiry should beepistemological.

Since the journal explicitly aims to overcome disciplinary separations, wefelt it necessary to abandon the reviewing mechanisms institutionalized inmost academic journals. We do not believe that an endeavor such asdeveloping a "transdisciplinary journal" is possible within the context ofthe power/knowledge structure inherent in the traditional review process.Hence, papers will not be reviewed with the explicit purpose of suggestingmodifications. Instead, the editor will assign the submitted papers to twomembers of the editorial board, and publish their reactions and observationsalong with the papers.

Although this particular structure makes the quality of any received paperdifficult to determine, we believe that the very criteria of "academicquality" should be subject to discussion, rather than taken for granted orsimply inferred from the presence of a structured and systematic reviewingprocess. The editorial board is currently involved in such a debate, whichwill result in future modifications to this call for submissions. A similarissue concerns our lack of a clear definition for the term "emergence",which is, similarly, subject to an ongoing debate within the editorial boardresulting in periodic modifications to the editorial statement of theJournal.

In this way, we hope to overcome the disciplinary (in a Focauldian sense)emphasis of the traditional reviewing process as well as of a crystallizeddefinition of a concept in favor of dialogue and trans-fertilization.

The deadline for our Spring 2004 issue is December 1st. We are alwaysaccepting submissions and proposals for future issues.

We thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,

Journal editor:

Angelo Fanelli

(University of Florida and SDA Bocconi Business School)

Editorial board:

Daniel Blochwitz (University of Florida)

Cristina Crucini (University of Reading)

Giuseppe Delmestri (Bocconi University)

Angelo Fanelli (University of Florida and SDA Bocconi Business School)